352 Fertilizers 



wheat, peanuts, roses and herbaceous plants, lawns, 

 grasses and plant-house vegetables. These are, of course, 

 similar to those already described, since their best devel- 

 opment requires that they shall be well supplied with the 

 fertilizing constituents, nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 

 potash, though their special needs in this respect have not 

 been so fully investigated as the other crops dealt with 

 in this chapter. The discussion of their requirements is, 

 therefore, necessarily brief, and the suggestions made 

 are of a general rather than a special character, though 

 they may serve as a safe guide. 



Sorghum. 



Sorghum is grown both for forage and for sugar, and 

 its fertilization should be discussed from these two stand- 

 points. If grown for forage, the fertilization should be 

 more liberal and of a different character than if for sugar, 

 as the object is the largest yield of succulent food rather 

 than the highest yield of sugar, and the yield of sugar is 

 not always consistent with the highest yield of cane. 

 For forage, therefore, the fertilizer recommended for 

 maize forage (p. 262) is well adapted for sorghum on soils 

 in a good state of fertility, though since the plant is very 

 slow to start, its early growth is stimulated if a larger 

 amount of readily available nitrogen is used than is de- 

 sirable for corn, particularly on soils of medium fertility, 

 and which have not been previously well fertilized. If 

 grown for sugar, too much nitrogen must be avoided, 

 since an excess of this element in the fertilizer causes an 

 imperfect ripening, and consequently a higher percent- 

 age of non-cry stallizable sugar in the cane; though if 

 quickly available forms are used, as nitrate, ammonia 

 or dried blood, which may be absorbed by the plant 



